Search

Descending necrotizing mediastinitis (DNM) is a medical emergency with a high associated morbidity and mortality.DNM may arise secondary to primary odontogenic or neck infection in susceptible patients and it may spread contiguously via the “danger” space to the mediastinum. This case report is focused on complications following an odontogenic infection in a healthy 48-year-old male that led to a massive inflammation associated an extensive empyema.After chest and neck computed tomographic scan a diagnosis of cervical necrotizing fasciitis with DNM was made. A multidisciplinary approach with an urgent surgical intervention and the finding of the right antibiotic therapy resulted to be successful. After 2 weeks the patient was dismissed in better health condition.

Introducción: la miliaria es una enfermedad inflamatoria de la piel, usualmente conocida como salpullido, es muy frecuente en niños pequeños sobre todo en los meses de verano. Objetivo: valorar la eficacia de la infusión de Verbena azul en el control de la miliaria común. Métodos: se realizó un ensayo clínico fase II, a partir de la preparación de una infusión de hojas frescas o secas molidas, que se vertieron en 12 litros de agua hirviente, se tapó y se separó del fuego después de añadirle la planta, se dejó reposar y se coló. Fue aplicada tibia en todo el cuerpo durante 21 días, en dos secciones, al levantarse, y en la tarde luego del baño diario. El estudio se realizó en 30 lactantes de raza blanca, que acudieron con esta patología a la consulta de Medicina Natural y Tradicional, en el consultorio 6 del poblado de Altagracia, en el periodo entre junio del 2004 y junio del 2005, los cuales pertenecían al Policlínico Comunitario Docente "Carlos J. Finlay" de la Ciudad de Camagüey. Los datos se recogieron mediante una encuesta, confeccionada de acuerdo con los objetivos planteados en la investigación. Resultados: el grupo más afectado fue el de 3 a 6 meses, todos los pacientes fueron blancos, no se encontraron diferencias significativas en cuanto al sexo. La variedad clínica más frecuente fue la cristalina, y los meses en que más se presentó fueron entre junio y agosto. Conclusiones: este tratamiento presentó una alta eficacia en el control de la sintomatología de la miliaria común; se curaron 9 de cada 10 pacientes.Introduction: miliaria is an skin inflammatory disease known as rash and is very frequent in small children mainly during summer months. Objective: assessing the efficacy of the infusion of blue Verbena in controlling common heat rash. Methods: a phase II clinical trial was conducted from the preparation of an infusion of fresh leaves or dry grinded poured out in 12 liters of boiling water, was covered and removed from fire after adding the plant, it was doughed and strained. It was applied warm in whole body for 21 days in t wo sessions, to stand up and at evening after daily bath. A study was conducted in 30 white infants presenting with this pathology who came to the Natural and Traditional Medicine Service in the No.6 consulting room of the Altagracia settlement from June, 2004 to June, 2005 of "Carlos J. Finlay" Teaching Community polyclinic of the Camagüey city. Data were collected by survey, designed according to the objectives proposed in research. Results: the more involved group was that aged 3-6 months, all patients were white; there were not significant differences as regards sex. The more frequent clinical variety was the crystalline one and more prevalent months were June and August. Conclusions: present treatment was highly effective in the control of symptomatology of the common miliaria; nine of ten patients were cured.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare, idiopathic, cystic disease that affects lungs of young women at childbearing age. Usually, LAM clinical manifestations are pneumothorax, progressive dyspnea and chylous pleural effusions. In many cases, due to unusual and nonspecific symptoms, LAM is mis-recognized and patients, who are affected by such disease, receive delayed diagnosis. This case report focuses on a 45-year-old woman patient with asymptomatic lymphangioleiomyomatosis who presented a big cyst which makes it looks like hydropneumothorax condition. Although chest radiograph and following CT scan has given an incidental diagnosis of right hydropneumothorax, treatment with drainages and video-assisted thorascopic surgery, instead, has allowed us to formulate correct diagnosis of cysts in LAM., (© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of University of Washington.)

Purpose: The aim of this study is to review the literature concerning myocardial late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) with cardiac magnetic resonance in patients with Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF), with regards to its prevalence, characteristics and clinical relevance., Methods: We performed a systematic search, aiming to retrieve original articles that evaluated LGE in ToF, running a search string on MEDLINE and EMBASE in November 2019 and November 2020. Papers were then selected by two independent, blinded readers based on title and abstract, and then on full-text reading, and articles which did not include LGE evaluation were excluded. From each included paper two readers extracted descriptive data concerning technical parameters of LGE acquisition, LGE description and clinical significance., Results: 18 articles were eventually included in our review. The included studies observed that a higher amount of right ventricular LGE relates with higher right ventricular volumes, lower ejection fraction and a higher pulmonary regurgitant fraction, thus acting as a marker of progressive impairment of myocardial function. Moreover, LGE in ToF patients correlated with the onset of arrhythmias, and with serum biomarkers indicative of myocardial stress and fibrosis., Conclusions: LGE could be used in the follow-up repaired ToF patients as its appraisal can provide information concerning cardiac dysfunction. Moreover, it may be ideal to aim towards a common framework for standardizing assessment and quantification of LGE in ToF patients., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To assess right ventricular (RV) myocardial strain both globally and segmentally through feature-tracking cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients with Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF), with regards to pulmonary valve replacement (PVR)., Methods: After Ethics Committee approval, we retrospectively included 46 consecutive ToF patients who had two CMR examinations performed at our institution between March 2014 and June 2019. We divided patients into those who had not undergone PVR between the two CMR examinations (Group-0), and those who had (Group-1). Ventricular volumes were quantified on cine sequences, and strain was calculated through feature-tracking, using the previously traced segmentations. RV longitudinal and radial strain were assessed both globally and separately for the septum and free wall. Variations were normalized for intercurrent years, differences were appraised with t-tests or Mann-Whitney U., Results: 30 patients belonged to Group-0 and 16 to Group-1. Median age was 22 years (interquartile range [IQR] 17-29 years) in Group-0, and 21 years (IQR 16-29 years) in Group-1. No significant differences were reported in RV strain between groups (p ≥ 0.254) except for RV septal radial strain, significantly higher (p = 0.010) in Group-0 (24.2 %, IQR 10.1-52.4 %) than in Group-1 (6.0 %, IQR -3.3-23.3 %) at the second CMR. Both global and segmental RV strains decreased over time in both groups, and yearly variations did not differ significantly (p ≥ 0.081) between groups., Conclusions: While PVR performed at the appropriate timing eases the burden on the RV allowing for a reduction in volumes, RV strain seems to continuously deteriorate as in patients who do not undergo PVR., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Estimating early postmortem interval (EPI) is a difficult task in daily forensic activity due to limitations of accurate and reliable methods. The aim of the present work is to describe a novel approach in the estimation of EPI based on quantitative magnetic resonance molecular imaging (qMRMI) using a pig phantom since post-mortem degradation of pig meat is similar to that of human muscles. On a pig phantom maintained at 20° degree, using a 1.5 T MRI scanner we performed 10 scans (every 4 hours) monitoring apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA) magnetization transfer ration (MTR), tractography and susceptibility weighted changes in muscles until 36 hours after death. Cooling of the phantom during the experiment was recorded. Histology was also obtained. Pearson's Test was carried out for time correlation between post-mortem interval and MRI data. We found a significative inverse correlation between ADC, FA, MT values and PMI. Our preliminary data shows that post-mortem qMRMI is a potential powerful tool in accurately determining EPI and is worth of further investigation.

Duodenal duplication cyst is a rare congenital anomaly that develops during the embryonic stage and could remain unknown until the adult age. Although often asymptomatic, duodenal duplication cysts can lead to various clinical scenarios with different degree of severity, from nonspecific abdominal pain up to cholestasis, intussusception or pancreatitis.

We report a rare case of iatrogenic right coronary artery (RCA) dissection complicated by a retrograde subtle aortic dissection, which occurred during a primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). A 65-year-old female, with acute anterior ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), promptly underwent primary PTCA in the left anterior descending artery. After 5 h, the patient's condition becomes worse with recurrence of chest pain and new electrocardiogram modifications suggestive of inferior STEMI. A second coronary angiography revealed a spiral dissection extending from the ostium to the medium tract of the RCA. At the same time, a contrast media extravasation due to coronary ostium fissure occurred. Coronary stents were implanted from the medium tract of the right coronary to the ostium, to promptly arrest the active bleeding and to treat the dissection. After cardiosurgical advice, the patient was referred to the radiology department, where she underwent computed tomography angiography (CTA), which showed a small hematoma in the anterior wall of the ascending aorta. The stable clinical conditions of the patient suggested a conservative therapeutic approach. During the following 6 weeks CTA and transesophageal echocardiography were performed to rule out any other complication, and the patient was fortunately discharged with almost complete resolution of the hematoma., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

A laryngeal foreign body (FB) is a significant, life-threatening event in the paediatric population. Incomplete airways obstruction by a thin, laminar, radiolucent FB lodged in the glottis or supraglottis is a rare occurrence that may present with non-specific symptoms, absence of chest findings, and normal radiographic investigations, resulting in misdiagnosis, delay in diagnosis, or prolonged recovery. We report two cases of 10-month-old male infants, each with a thin radiolucent FB lodged between the vocal folds that was detected with low-dose multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and thin-slice reconstruction. Both infants presented with symptoms of respiratory airway inflammation at clinical examination and negative neck and chest radiographs. FBs were removed by direct laryngoscopy, without complications. In our experience, low-dose MDCT with thin-slice reconstruction is particularly useful for diagnosis in cases of suspected FB aspiration with uncertain clinical presentation and negative radiographic exams.

Background: Bronchial artery aneurysm (BAA) is a rare condition with a reported prevalence of less than 1% of all selective bronchial arterial angiograms. Despite its low incidence, BAA represents a potential cause of hemoptysis., Case Report: We describe the case of a 63-year-old man suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), who presented with non-massive hemoptysis. CT angiography revealed a single bronchial artery aneurysm of 9 mm in diameter, abutting the esophageal wall. Other CT findings included hypertrophy of the bronchial arteries along the mediastinal course, diffuse thickening of the walls of numerous bronchial branches and a "ground glass" opacity in the anterior segment of the right upper pulmonary lobe suggestive of alveolar hemorrhage. The final diagnosis was established based on selective angiography, which was followed by transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) of the BAA and of the pathological bronchial circulation. Follow-up CT scans revealed a total exclusion of the aneurysm from the systemic circulation, resolution of the parenchymal "ground glass" opacity and absence of further episodes of hemoptysis over a period of two years., Conclusions: An incidental finding of a bronchial artery aneurysm necessitates prompt treatment. CT angiography and TAE represent the methods of choice for an appropriate diagnosis and treatment, respectively. In case of a BAA associated with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as COPD, in patients with hemoptysis, TAE of the BAA and of the pathological bronchial circulation, in association with the treatment of the underlying disease, represents a valid approach that can improve the pulmonary status and prevent further episodes of hemoptysis.